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Tonight's special guest is HelenMarie McCracken from Tucson, Arizona, telling her story with us for the first time. HelenMarie serves as the NAASCA Ambassador program's Pacific Southwest Regional Director. She says, "My children and my life experience are what attracted me to become an activist and advocate for domestic violence and child abuse." While domestic violence is typically not included in the legal definitions of child abuse, NAASCA recognizes the devastating consequences it has for children. Being raised around domestic violence causes trauma even if the child experiences no direct physical harm, such as the emotional, psychological, and developmental impacts that can affect a person throughout their life. HelenMarie is a long-term survivor of narcissistic abuse and domestic violence. It wasn't until after she finally had the courage to leave the marriage that she learned truth of what her life had become. She did not know what a narcissist was nor realize that she was in a domestic violent marriage, and has been spending the last several years educating herself to understand personality disorders and domestic violence. She has learned numerous valuable life lessons and how to protect herself and her children and wants other victims and survivors to know that they are not alone and that there is help for them. She is dedicated to educating youth with the Domestic Violence Youth Awareness Week Campaign, a program designed for high school level kids. She's advocating to create a law, BriElen's Law, which would mandate every high school in the US to provide Domestic Violence Youth Awareness Week. We're delighted to have HelenMarie as a part of our NAASCA family!